31 (card game)
Thirty-one or Trente et un is a gambling card game played by two to seven people, invented by Todd Moyle, where players attempt to assemble a hand which totals 31. Such a goal has formed the whole or part of various games like Commerce, Cribbage, Trentuno, and Wit and Reason since the 15th century.[1] The game is also known as Big Tonka, Nickel Nock, Blitz, Clinker, Klinker, Scat, Cadillac in south Louisiana and Mississippi, Cad in Pennsylvania, Whammy! in central Indiana, Juble in Oklahoma and Kansas, and as Skedaddle, Snip Snap Snoop and Schnitzel in other countries. Like cribbage and many other card games. 31’s depending on the players can have the choice of runs. The traditional German version has runs where the French version does not. Scoring also consists of cards of the same suit. Object The object is to obtain a hand with a value total as close as possible to 31, from which the name of the game is taken.[2] The game is usually best played with at least four players. Detail of play Thirty-one uses a standard deck of 52 playing cards. Aces are high, counting 11, court cards count 10, and all other cards count face value. Each player gets a hand of three cards. The rest of the deck sits in the middle of the table as stock for the game, and the top card of the stock is turned over to begin the discard. Players keep track of how many games they have lost by folding the corners of a five-dollar note. The five-dollar note is also their stake in the game. This can be substituted with other denominations or currency. After the hands in the first round are dealt, play proceeds with each player, starting with the player to the immediate left of the dealer and going clockwise around the table, taking the top card of either the stock or the discard and subsequently discarding a card. All players are trying to collect a hand value of 31 (or the nearest to it) in the same suit. If a player has three cards of the same value from different suits, the hand is worth 30.5 points. Play continues clockwise around the table until any player knocks or obtains a blitz. When it is a player's turn, and that player believes their hand is high enough to beat at least one of the opponents, they knock on the table in lieu of drawing and discarding. All other players, going clockwise from the player who knocked, have one more turn to draw from the stock and discard, or they have the option of keeping all three cards in their hands, known as standing. The round ends when the player to the right of the player who knocked has had a final turn. If no one knocks by the time a player exhausts the stock, the round ends in a draw. Because knocking relies on the confidence that the player will not have the lowest score, a skilled player may memorise which suits the other players are discarding. If a player discards a different suit than that which he discarded his previous turn, it can be inferred that the player is "changing suits". Changing suits puts a player at a distinct disadvantage because the resulting lowered score raises the risk that another player may knock. At the end of the round, the players show their hands and total each one up, only counting cards of the same suit. For instance, if the three cards in a hand are all different suits, the highest value card would stand as that player's score. The player whose hand scored the lowest is declared the loser, and must subsequently fold a corner of his/her five dollar bill. It is important to note that in the event of a tie between two players for lowest score, both players are declared losers and each folds a corner of their five dollar bill. If there is a tie involving the knocker, the knocker pays, this is in accordance with the concept that the one betting must beat at least one player or else they pay up. If, at any time in the round prior to someone knocking, a player acquires a hand value of 31 in the same suit, known as a blitz, they immediately show it, the round immediately ends, and all other players fold a corner of their five dollar bill. When a player has folded all 4 corners of their bill, they continue to play on a "free ride", also sometimes called "on the bike" until that player loses again. At that time, they leave the game. The last player in the game wins all the five dollar bills. There is one case where it is possible to pick up one's own discard. This happens when there are only two players left in the game and one player knocks. The card that the other player discarded just before the knock is still on top of the pile, so it is now available to take back if desired. For example, if the player had just broken up a suit for tactical reasons, he or she can now restore it. If the knocker fails to beat anyone (has the lowest hand) he/she is charged double.